If your name is a bit long, chances are your friends will shorten it in order to save writing time. You can fight it, but it is going to make you sound like a bit of an ass, so you may as well embrace it. Check your name for whatever is the likely shortcut people will adopt.

My guild has a player with a longish name which includes a special character and nobody is really sure how to pronounce it. On TS one night, one of the guildies made several humourous attempts at trying to get this poor player's name right, and eventually said: "Kere... Seeeera... Cira... Wait. I've got it!.... George."

So yes, keep in mind what people are likely to call you when naming your character :P

Any names that use three or more words are in danger of being reported, especially if someone takes offense to it or wants to go on a reporting spree. Ever get into drama in a random dungeon? He can retaliate by reporting your name.

Combining two words is cool, on a non-RP realm that is. There are plenty of NPC names like that, especially for Gnomes, Goblins, Elves (both night and blood), Dwarves and Tauren. A lot of people and NPC names start like that for Tauren: Palehoof, Longhorn, Duskpelt, Keeneye. Their names tend to be very descriptive of the character itself.

However, no matter what realm you are on, names like Ilovepeanuts or Gotthatshot are not acceptable and if you choose them, you should be aware that your name can be reported and taken from you at any time.

I recommend one should make a name that means something to him/her, that way one will get better connection with the character. Also knowing the origin of your name goes a long way.

I agree with this most of my name are jokes or referneces and knowing the origin is ice it's also fun to test people like with my dwarfs name Lodossghim(people have actually accused me of swiping it from LOTR) or my shamans name Dedlit. Those are reference while other names might be something like from the second toon i ever made Holywarrior give you 1 guess what class he is another joke name i use is Demonconsort again 1 guess. And the classic things like Lupineursa(worgen druid tank) or my NE priest Tsukinomiko(priestess of the moon)i actually do use resources like lanquage books.

Oh and one of my fav name choices is for my DK's Ryuuketsu means bloodshedd perfect for a DK tank. Plus it sounds hella nice.

But yeah each and every one of those names means something to me and is a bit of a fun joke/reference so i can have fun with it.

I used a combination of the first few letters of my real names to come up with my first WoW character name. 3 letters from last name (Han), 2 from first name (Am) and 2 from my middle name (Mi), therefore Hanammi. Most people call me Hana, works great! (Not all peoples names lend themselves well to this technique, but it's fun to play around with.)

I also love to use modified Dutch words as names. They sound exotic here in the USA. For example, according to the translator I used, Voorvechter is the the Dutch word for "paladin." But since it's a female character I made it sound more feminine and came up with Voorvechta. Most commonly referred to as "Voor." "Tovenaar" was the word the translator gave me for "wizard" so my female warlock became "Tovenaaria."

Basically my guildies know by now if a toon with a weird polysyllabic name logs on, it's probably me! =D

I read WoW's naming policy and you got to remember, two words for a name is okay, three words is out of the question. Tallywacker, Sagewhisper, Smarthealer are all okay. But please report anyone with Toocoolskool, Eatmaibutt, and Pooponstick so they can get a free name change.

My first characters were mostly random names I somehow came up with. But now I try to get some names with a 'meaning' so for me it's Sound > Gender > Class > Race.
But I usually start finding a word that fits the class, then make sure it fits the gender, maybe add a bit race flavor and then round it up by making it sound good overall.
So my shaman is named Lantha (thought an elemental name would be fitting and found Lanthanides make a good base)
My druid is named Sternenfeder (german for Starfeather. Because that druid was balance from the first second, also contrast to the wellknown nelf name Moonfeather)
My gnome priest is called Lichtwicht (Licht=Light, Wicht=Small person...to obvious, but I like the name)
Also have a horde mage (rarely played) that is called Zauberwerfer (Named after the infamous Ahn'kahar Spell Flingers - source of a thousand wipes - from Old Kingdom...one day I will be as OP as those)

Also if you find the meaning of my mage's name Avohaj, you'll get a cookie.

This is an excellent guide, was an interesting read while servers were down for maintenance today.

My main is a Orc Deathknight named Dystrukshun, as such my guildies refer to me as Dys and I tend to continue the Dys naming convention whenever I can think of something that fits with my Race and/or Class.

Hunter - Dysengage
Priest - Dyspersion
Etc.

I started a Goblin Shaman that i had intended to be Elemental/Resto so I wanted to think of something that was related to the elements, lightning, and incorporate the my Dys nickname. I came up with Dyscharge like lightning discharge and asked my guildies what they thought, within minutes that name was thrown out when some one mentioned anal discharge, lol, so definately ask your friends for their opinion.

I am also rather fond of my Tauren Paladin's name Protectaur, you can probably guess what its mainspec is.

Alt code characters are a poor choice for any name, be it a Character or a Guild name. I think they look sloppy and chances are that the unique name you were hoping for is taken or reserved so you've decided to put an Alt code in. This negates your attempt at having a cool unique name. For example there are 3 Paladin's on my server that have basically the same name (I won't mention the specific name, but you should get the idea) with verying alt codes. One of them was a horrible Tank and aquired a bit of a bad rep that in turn was passed on to the others due to the similarity of their names.

Hi all, thanks again for sharing cool stories (bro) and for the positive feedback.

About undeads, actually I didn't include them because they share the same heritage as humans, and I find that whatever applies to humans applies to the Forsaken as well, but it is an interesting point, since you could very well play on the "un-death" theme when choosing a name for your toon.

By the way, Worgenfreeman made me laugh out loud and then chuckle for a good 5 minutes, thanks for this one.

I have a pretty big collection of character names, both male and female

Edos (My first character name in a online game, also used for a Gnome Warlock)
Rashart (undead)
Laycian (elf warrior, also the name of my first character in D&D xD)
Gonthiar (Draenei shaman)
Leena (human rogue)
Isleen (I was not inspired that day xD, Dwarf Paladin)
Aileenia (another note of no inspiration, worgen)
Mystrel (Gnome DK)
Winim (Goblin mage)
Shandro (gnome priest, to have a character with a name similar to mine)

Well I usually had apparently good choices for names except my warlock, his name is Batatafrita (translates to french fries).

My pally I didn't had much imagination but I chose Ozbourne (Hail the prince of Darkness! A Paladin!!!), and my Rogue, which is a Worgen and I just didn't knew what else class to create, I kinda made the name Vermond, it was meant to be Vermont, but it was taken.